Khedira retired Ballack while Vidal was holding his water bottle and polishing his "CL final participation medal". Boateng went to play in Africa because Khedira made the spot totally his own.
Khedira was the best German player at the Euro and performed with the competency that you expect from a Real Madrid player on International duty.

Selling our own players short is quite fun it seems, while we turn around and demand from the club to not do the same when it comes to the cantera.

Let's keep it real. They were outplaying us and should might should have taken the lead had Soldado not been wrongly ruled offside. Then we score a goal out of nowhere. Both luck and the officials were on our side last night. It is demoralizing to be on the other side of that equation and Valencia looked like a team that had been collectively kicked in the nuts when they went down 1-0.

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If Jonas wouldn't have blasted his shot into the fondo sur, Valencia would've had a goal.
We totally owned them in the second half. Even Karanka admitted it.

Valencia would have been as deflated as they were at 2-0 from the start of the game if Banega would have gotten rightly sent off. This is brutality, but it seems that in Spain there's only room for one "asesino" while the others can butcher Ronaldo as they please.

I thought Ballack retired because he lost his captaincy and all the controversy that followed. Ballack was a beast in his day and almost single handedly carried Bayer Leverkusen to a CL final and Germany to a WC final in the same year. Total nonsense comparing him with Khedira as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to get into the history of the position with Germany because I don't follow the league or teams very closely and you will probably come back with a quote from 2007.

I'm talking about the players current form or at least since Khedira became a Madrid player. Ballack hadn't been on our radar since circa 2005, LOL.

Let's not get carried away here. He has performed well these last games and has been important during his time here in Madrid but Yaya Toure and Vidal are still miles ahead of him. If I could go back in time and sign Kevin Prince Boateng instead then that's a deal I would have preferred as well.

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Vidal is not better than him. He's a different type of player, but he's not better than him.

Vidal is not better than him. He's a different type of player, but he's not better than him.

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Which is another valid point, not every team plays with a player of Khedira's position whatever that may be called. At Juventus Vidal is closest to that although he is not nearly as physically imposing he brings much more on the ball efficiency than Khedira. In the end these are only opinions and I have my own (which happens to be the correct one ) .

Which is another valid point, not every team plays with a player of Khedira's position whatever that may be called. At Juventus Vidal is closest to that although he is not nearly as physically imposing he brings much more on the ball efficiency than Khedira.

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He also makes mind boggling decisions with the ball at times, and he plays in a weaker league against much weaker opponents.

Khedira can still get better, I'm very impressed by the steps he made this season. I was very critical of him this past summer, and I'm happy to say he's proven me wrong.

A player who is a regular for a major NT,
and also happen to play for respectable club
well he must be one of the best in the world in his position.
In the next couple of years Sami will get even better.

I gotta say, I was hating on Khedira a lot, and even though I still think he got logs for feet, he has been one of our most impressive and consistent players this season. I like him now that he is let loose by Mourinho, I wish he would be a bit smarter in his distribution and calmer in his finishing.

I gotta say, I was hating on Khedira a lot, and even though I still think he got logs for feet, he has been one of our most impressive and consistent players this season. I like him now that he is let loose by Mourinho, I wish he would be a bit smarter in his distribution and calmer in his finishing.

I think Khedira has been quite good this season and though it might very well be a case of him being the "best of the worse" with the general slump the majority of our first team players are in this season I think he still deserves kudos for taking some personal pride in his "work" if you will. At least he looks interested in being a good representative of our Club by giving 100% effort every game. Debate his quality if you will but no one should question his character. We saw glimpses of this Khedira his first two seasons here but now we're seeing the consistency many, present company included, were seeking. I have no problem with Alonso and Khedira going up against Xavi and Iniesta either, we have seen when they are both performing to their capabilities they are more than capable of going toe-to-toe with them. The issue has been getting them both to do that at the same time though...

All that being said let's ease off the crack pipe just a smidge with the "best player in the world at his position" stuff okay? I agree there is still plenty of opportunity for him to improve though and hopefully we'll see him continue to progress.

Khedira is always a solid player for us. He isn't doing anything that he hasn't done in the past season except going forward a lot more which everyone seems to be excited about. Got to give him tons of credit for his impeccable positioning. However, while his stats in term of goals and assists is improved, I don't see he's that much effective going forward in the sense of how much he could capitalize from it. Due to his limitation, for everytime he got into dangerous area in the box, it's more often he failed to do any damage instead of actually made life harder for the opponent. For every goals and assists he made recently, there were more moment where he missed a perfect opportunity to shoot or spot his teammates. I cringed everytime I saw those, hoping it was a better attacker, for example: Benzema, who's there instead of Khedira.

His contribution in attack is improved, but in comparison to how many times he got into the box and got an opportunity to do damage, it doesn't seem too effective to me. Especially with some of our true attackers who likely would do better with Khedira's opportunity playing too deep for my liking. Wouldn't it better to give the role to the ones who's best to do it? Especially Khedira is much more valuable further back. Sure Khedira going forward adds the element of surprise to our attack, but I would like him to do that just occassionaly while focus on midfield solidity, the build up, ball recovery, and protecting defense. Hence our true attackers could and should attack the box more often and not too worry much about the build up, etc.

I cringed everytime I saw those, hoping it was a better attacker, for example: Benzema, who's there instead of Khedira.

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You make some very good points that I agree with however this still leaves a hole in your argument. Benzema and Ozil do not make these runs into the box either because they don't see the channels or they are to lazy. I think it has more to do with their style of play where they like balls to the feet and not to be chasing them at full speed. They seem to prefer a slower more methodical approach.

Higuain and Kaka making those runs into the box very well. They know how to time their runs and they know where to make the runs. Now throw Ronaldo into the mix and you have three players who will start their runs from different positions and finish in the same place at the same time. Ozil and Benzema provide the throught balls without which those runs into the box would be for nothing. We need a Ronaldo would be more willing to pass and a Benzema more willing to run. For the time being however we've got Khedira looking like the bull in a china shop.

This is why Di Maria had looked so good and had been so useful. Ditto Marcelo. They can both drible the ball under pressure, find the open man, and make the final pass in addition. They can completely open up and exploit a defense plus they get back and defend well. I think everyone saw the other night how much of a difference Marcelo makes. He hustles back on defense and going forward he's just as good as any of our attackers. Marcelo gives us something no one else in the team can.